Cuban recipe

Cuban Sugar Apple Drink (Refresco de Anón)

Name: Cuban Sugar Apple Drink (Refresco de Anón)
Prep time: 25 min
Total time: 25 min
Ingredients: 4 large ripe sugar apples (anones) (about 800 g of cleaned pulp); 1 liter cold water; ½ cup sugar, or to taste; 2 cups ice

Creamy Cuban sugar apple drink made with seedless pulp, water, sugar and ice. Easy, alcohol-free, and makes 4 well-chilled glasses.

CiberCubaNovember 8, 2026

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Preparation25 min
Total time25 min
Servings4 glasses
DifficultyEasy

Anón, or sugar apple, is one of those backyard fruits Cubans enjoy when it is in season: it has scaly green skin and sweet, fragrant white pulp full of shiny black seeds.

This drink is the simplest way to make the most of it: you scoop out the pulp, clean it thoroughly of seeds, blend it with water and sugar, and serve it very cold. It is a classic homemade drink, the kind made at home to cool off on hot days, unpretentious and full of the pure flavor of the fruit.

Ingredients

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4 large ripe sugar apples (anones) (about 800 g of cleaned pulp)
1 liter cold water
½ cup sugar, or to taste
2 cups ice

Method

Wash the sugar apples well on the outside and dry them. Open them in half with your hands or with a knife.
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Scoop out the pulp with a spoon and place it in a large bowl. Discard the skin.
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Remove all the black seeds from the pulp by hand, one by one, and put them on a separate plate. Check several times with your fingers until none are left.
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Put the clean, seedless pulp in the blender with the cold water and the sugar. Blend for about 30 seconds on low or medium speed, just until combined.
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Taste and adjust: add more sugar if needed or a little more water if it came out thick. Strain it if you want a finer texture, and check that no seeds have slipped through.
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Fill the glasses with ice, serve the drink very cold, and drink it right away.

Tips and variations

Most important: remove absolutely every seed by hand before blending. The black sugar apple seeds are not meant to be crushed or ground; discard them whole along with the skin.

Storage: keep it in a covered pitcher in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. It separates a little as it sits, so stir it well before serving. Add the ice only when serving so it does not get watered down.

Sweeter or lighter: taste before sweetening, because the sweetness of each sugar apple varies with its ripeness. If it turns out too thick, add a little more cold water.

Where to find sugar apples in the US: look for them in Latin and Caribbean markets, tropical food stores, and some supermarkets with an exotic fruit section; in Florida they are easier to find in season. Frozen sugar apple pulp is also sold (sometimes labeled "sugar apple" or "custard apple", the English names for anón); if you use frozen pulp, make sure it is seedless and thaw it in the refrigerator before blending.

Well-ripened fruit: a ripe sugar apple yields slightly when pressed gently and opens easily. If it is hard, let it ripen for a few days at room temperature.

The same precaution of removing the seeds by hand before using the blender applies to other tropical fruits such as star apple (caimito), sapodilla (níspero), Spanish lime (mamoncillo), and soursop (guanábana).